Women and the Making of the University of Alicante Campus: Critical Reappraisals of Modern Architecture (1982–1999)

Abstract

A stroll around the University of Alicante campus is like a journey through the history of Spanish architecture of the last 40 years, as many of its buildings exemplify the best production of the period. This legacy also tells a story about the role played by female architects within the profession. In fact, a gender reading reveals that only two women, Pilar Vázquez Carrasco, the architect of the Faculty of Sciences (FS, 1982) and the Social Club I (1987), and Dolores Alonso Vera, responsible for the Higher Polytechnic School IV (HPS, 1999), have designed structures on the campus over almost four decades and out of a total of more than 50 buildings. The FS is an example of structural sincerity whose brick and concrete materials and externalisation of services provide Brutalist echoes. The HPS IV is a design exercise consisting of a series of elegant, inviting volumes and open spaces intertwined with the campus garden. This essay focuses on the comparative analysis of these two award-winning works to unveil those contributions that female authorship has brought to their solutions by relating them to comparable buildings in space, time and type, but designed by male architects.

Inclusive Higher Education and the Built Environment. A Research and Teaching Agenda for Gender Mainstreaming in Architecture Studies

“…Its teaching staff, motivated by and committed to the multiple and diverse experiences described and their encouraging results, have worked, simultaneously, in the practice of research into this area of teaching and, also, in its management and in the professional exercise of providing feedback. By bringing together all these facets, they have developed and made available to the whole university community, the first guide to the introduction of gender perspective into the teaching of architecture ever published in Spain [5].…”

“…She conceives a permeable spatial system able to generate a singular universe. It is first revealed through a semi-covered passage, like a bridge which is inviting us to cross and discover, and at the same time promoting and incorporating a new itinerary within the campus [24]. It is an open building made up of a series of prismatic volumes which are organized around a central sunken patio, to which access is gained via a large ramp communicating the two public use levels.…”

“…With this in mind, this article addresses the implementation of the frameworks of analysis and action of gender perspective/s as a sine qua non condition for the achievement of higher (co)education which is both egalitarian and inclusive [5]. Specifically, it focusses on the teaching of Architecture, which is of utmost importance for sustainability.…”